{"product_id":"2940013881914","title":"YOUNG PEOPLES' HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN","description":"CHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE CAUSE OF THE WAR.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Illustration: (Battle at sea)]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn April 21st, 1898, a war began between the United States and Spain.\u003cbr\u003eAll the other countries of the world felt an interest in it, but did\u003cbr\u003enot take any part in it. They were what we call \"neutral\"--that is,\u003cbr\u003ethey did not help either side.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs soon as the war was proclaimed a great wave of excitement swept\u003cbr\u003ethrough the United States, from shore to shore. Flags were hung out in\u003cbr\u003eevery city and town; thousands of men offered to serve in the\u003cbr\u003earmy--volunteers they were called; and many persons offered to help in\u003cbr\u003eother ways. The people were not glad that war had begun, but they felt\u003cbr\u003ethat their country was doing right, and that they ought to support her\u003cbr\u003eefforts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd what was the cause of the war? Spain, a large country across the\u003cbr\u003eAtlantic Ocean, in the southwestern part of Europe, owned some of the\u003cbr\u003eislands, called \"West Indies,\" near the United States. Spain had been\u003cbr\u003eunjust and cruel to the people living in one of these islands, for\u003cbr\u003emany years. Several times the unhappy islanders tried to drive the\u003cbr\u003eSpanish from the island, and set up a government of their own, but\u003cbr\u003eSpain sent so many soldiers there that they could not get their\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003efreedom. They fought bravely, however, but matters kept getting worse\u003cbr\u003eand worse, and at last Spain sent a very cruel general to take charge\u003cbr\u003eof affairs in the island. His name was Weyler, and he determined to\u003cbr\u003econquer the islanders. After a while he found he could not do it by\u003cbr\u003efighting them, so he sent his soldiers to drive those who were not\u003cbr\u003efighting away from their homes and farms and make them live in or near\u003cbr\u003ethe large cities. When he had done this, the people had no way to earn\u003cbr\u003emoney to buy food for themselves and their families, and soon they\u003cbr\u003ebegan to get sick and to die of starvation. The cruel Weyler would not\u003cbr\u003egive them anything to eat, and so they died by thousands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Illustration: Cuban Flag.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen this dreadful state of affairs became known in the United\u003cbr\u003eStates, kind people sent several ship-loads of food and medicines and\u003cbr\u003eclothing to the sufferers. This did a great deal of good, but all the\u003cbr\u003epoor people could not be reached and they continued to die. Finally,\u003cbr\u003ethe United States told Spain that she ought not to have such a cruel\u003cbr\u003eman at the head of affairs, and after a while Spain sent another\u003cbr\u003egeneral to take his place. This new governor's name was Blanco, and he\u003cbr\u003ereally tried to help the poor people, but Spain had very little money\u003cbr\u003eto send him to buy food for them, and so they went on dying. The\u003cbr\u003esoldiers, too, were in a very bad condition; they had not been paid\u003cbr\u003efor a great many months; they did not have enough to eat, and so they\u003cbr\u003etoo sickened and died by thousands. You can see that unless something\u003cbr\u003ewas done to help the poor people, they would all die and their\u003cbr\u003ebeautiful island would become a wilderness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides being very proud, Spain was very poor. She had spent millions\u003cbr\u003eof dollars trying to conquer the islanders, and had no money to buy\u003cbr\u003efood for the sufferers that she had driven from their homes and\u003cbr\u003ehuddled like cattle in yards and gloomy inclosures. So she asked the\u003cbr\u003eUnited States to help feed them, and the Red Cross Society, of which I\u003cbr\u003ewill tell you later, sent hundreds of tons of food, medicines and\u003cbr\u003eclothing to them. These supplies were distributed by competent\u003cbr\u003epersons, and the relief was very great, but very soon some of the\u003cbr\u003eSpaniards began to say that the United States had no business to\u003cbr\u003einterfere in the affairs of the island, and to stir up the people.\u003cbr\u003eThe feeling became so strong that our representative, Consul-General\u003cbr\u003eLee, notified the authorities in the United States that, the lives and\u003cbr\u003eproperty of American citizens living in the island were not safe. It\u003cbr\u003ewas for this reason that the battleship Maine was sent to Havana, the\u003cbr\u003echief city of the island. I will tell you about this ship later.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073764999408,"sku":"2940013881914","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013881914_p0.jpg?v=1763596662","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013881914","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}